I like the fact that I come with a lineage and have a filmi background.
I like myself the way I am. I have no filmi background, no godfather.
There is so much that I have learnt from Shilpa. She also didn't come from any filmi background, so I took lessons from her mistakes.
It's very tough for someone who doesn't have a filmi background to get work in Bollywood. It's not a smooth ride unless you are really lucky. But I think one has to be prepared for that.
I entered politics from a filmi background and had no idea about that world. Slowly, I realised that it did not suit me, and that's when I decided to get out of it.
It has been a contented journey, as I made it without a filmi background tag, but at the same time, a lot remains to be done because there is much good music in me.
My family is my biggest critic. Since they come from a non-filmi background, they give me an audience's point of view. They have been very supportive of me.
I am not a star kid, my parents are from Delhi, my dad manages a business, my mother is a professor, I have no filmi background, so if I don't have skills, I don't stand a chance in this industry full of star kids and people with influence.
I have realised I do not have any back up, or filmi background, or any influential person who is making movies for me. I have to take this journey on my own, and be careful. For me, if I do something wrong, I am not going to get second chances.
When I started out, at 19, I was told, by the media and the film industry to do a certain kind of films and work with certain kind of stars. Coming from a non-filmi background, I did not know how to go about it, as there were different people trying to push me in various directions.
I can't be filmi.
I love 'filmi' things.
I am very filmi by nature.
Nobody is ready to burn money just because you have a filmi lineage.
I have the background singers of Ray Charles, the background singers of Smokey Robinson, and the background singers of Barry White and I built a choir around that.